What have you learned about being inside?

[petra]

What's something you know now that you wish you had known earlier in your sojourn inside?

Comments

[petra]

The thing about unemployment is that no one is keeping score of how well you do except yourself. Be careful with your Shoulds.

[mific]

To try not to let my sleep pattern go into freefall!

I learned-

[dialecticdreamer]

That when I say that I'm a homebody, I mean it.

Today, I felt a tiny stirring of cabin fever-- we went into isolation in early March, before the oficial orders. Staring out a window solved the 'fever' problem.

Honestly, I'm probably terribly deficient in vitamin D by now.

[mific]

[lilysea]

Not a lot has changed for me - I've been mostly housebound from chronic illness since 2011.

The main change for me is not going out to the local post office or seeing the occasional film in a cinema.

I'll be interested to hear what other people have to say.

Re: I learned-

[mific]

Yeah, I'm taking vit D and calcium, as I'm nocturnal these days. :)

[mific]

Still, a pity to have to miss those outings.

[petra]

I resemble that remark.

[petra]

I suspect you already knew this. Maybe you didn't know how hard it would be to enforce, or maybe I am projecting.

[mific]

Heh.

[mific]

I kidded myself I could set up a schedule. Lasted two days! I'm going to try again, setting my sights lower. :)

Re: I learned-

[petra]

I'm somewhat jealous of your comfort level. My SO and I are self-quarantining and while nothing has changed but my words and missing a grocery run, I feel oppressed.

[petra]

I meant this question to apply to folks who have been inside for a long time, too. Do you have anything you've learned since 2011 to share?

Re: I learned-

[dialecticdreamer]

On the flip side, I used to volunteer once a week to guarantee that I practiced social interactions. By the end of a half-day shift, I was so wiped out that leftovers were planned for dinner! (I love to cook.)

[petra]

I keep promising myself I'll get up at 8am and then making a liar of myself. It's not a good look.

Re: I learned-

[petra]

Okay, that balances out my envy very nicely. I take it back, and am just glad that you are well adapted to the current circumstances.

Re: I learned-

[dialecticdreamer]

Find a middle ground that works for YOU.

I've got two people that I talk with every day, dozens of friends via email and messages, but in person, five people is about my limit for a group. The biggest problem I have is that I have medications that can't be interrupted... being interrupted by sudden changes of store hours, and so on. Being inside doesn't make those problems easier at all.

The best we can do is pitch in together to help keep the boat floating.

If you like the novelty of a trip out, or the social interactions, or whatever, think about other ways to meet that need. New experiences for me easily translate to trying new foods, while social practice includes foreign language practice now, so that I can find a live person to critique my accent and pronunciation later. And so on.

[cynthia1960]

They forgot to schedule in Kitty Parkour after yoga.

[illariy]

That all the energy I spent hating myself and talking myself down mentally was what kept my energy levels so low (not to mention my mood so very dark). I have started the long process of accepting myself as I am and while it is difficult, it has me slightly more hopeful and with a lighter mood already. :-)

[petra]

I'm glad you're feeling the upswing and I hope it keeps going as you work on acceptance.

Re: I learned-

[scytale]

Huh! This is actually helping me make sense of my own homebody-ness; I volunteer for around three hours once a week (heavy on social interaction, but still), and that usually leaves me wiped enough that usually the first thing I do when I get home is lie in bed or take a nap.

I'm cabin fevering a bit, but that's more because I miss nature and walks than because I miss people.

Re: I learned-

[dialecticdreamer]

I'm glad that it helped! Yeah, mine is/was a very high-interaction volunteer spot.

[scytale]

I had to really think about this one, because I don't know yet. I think I'm doing a lot more monitoring of my mental state, and I'm learning when to be gentle and when to push myself (and how to do that gently). And part of losing things is making me think about what I value. But that's still an ongoing process.

So probably the best thing I have is this: that I can adapt and change. The way I felt about staying inside on day 1 is not the way I felt on day 7, or now.

[petra]

I think we're all on this journey at our own pace, whether we've been stuck indoors for a while or just for the pandemic, so thank you for sharing your process with us.

I'm glad that you can adapt and change, and that you've got different feelings about Being Inside now than you did at the beginning. I hope you keep finding ways to grow in your greenhouse.

[scytale]

Thank you! :) Greenhouse is such a lovely and poetic way to put the current situation -- and also apt since indoors is sometimes getting hotter now that we're mid-April. I hope that you can continue to learn in your greenhouse, as well.

And thank you for always coming with such thought-provoking prompts! I've mostly been lurking, but it's always a pleasure to think over your questions.

[petra]

I'm glad to be able to provide interesting questions. Thanks for participating in the community!

[lilysea]

Do you have anything you've learned since 2011 to share?

Message people on Facebook to say hello;
Email people;
phone people

follow other Disabled/chronically ill people on social media, they understand about being mostly housebound

read Dreamwidth;
read Facebook;
read webcomics;
read ebooks

watch films/TV bought on itunes;
watch Netflix

cuddle cat

[lilysea]

Do you have anything you've learned since 2011 to share?

Also, if you are housebound or self isolating or social distancing, its really important to get tasty treats in your groceries as a lift me up/break the food monotony as you can't just pop to the local cafe for cake.

[fred_mouse]

That the daily walk is important. Every time I skip, my mood does a nose dive the next day but one.

[lilysea]

Listen to music as much as you can.

Look at photos of beautiful artwork or beautiful landscapes as much as you can.

[petra]

These seem like very good advice to me, especially the bit about finding other people in the same boat you are so you can communicate your situation without explaining it anew every time you meet someone.

[petra]

I read "Don't forget to get treats for yourself" as part of the disaster prep buying advice, and took it to heart. Thanks for the reminder that the only way to get something nice is to plan for it!

[petra]

I agree wholeheartedly and I feel terrible for people who are in situations where it's difficult to get out for a brief constitutional. In this scenario where we're all rolling constitution saving throws on a regular basis, it's key to keep our vital stats up to snuff.

[petra]

Very solid suggestions, thank you!

[lilysea]

Look at photos of beautiful artwork or beautiful landscapes as much as you can

also - one good source for these is

https://mymodernmet.com/

Also

Your best photos from the past week at abc.net.au
https://www.abc.net.au/news/abcmyphoto/2020-04-17/abc-your-best-photos-from-the-past-week-april-17-2020/12155420

[mesotablar]

I've been fairly housebound since 2016, though I was swapping between 2 houses. I enjoyed grocery shopping, the cinema and eating out at places nearby for lunch.

So now I'm just in the one house. I'm not allowed to grocery shop because I am at risk because of my chronic illness but not recognised as vulnerable to shop in the early hours when the shop is cleanest. I really miss eating out and I'm sort of terrified my favourite places won't reopen.

[mesotablar]

Having a good sleep routine is definitely the best thing for me. As a teen I had insomnia and when I was first housebound it was a novelty so my sleeping patterns were all over the place, in both cases the irregular sleep made me feel disconnected from other people and myself which led the way to anxiety and depression.
I go to bed around 10:30 and read which means I might fall asleep at 10:35 or midnight depending on how tired I am. Then I am awake between 6-8 am everyday.

Also stay away from screens for a block of time each day. I don't always succeed in this but it is a goal to spend 4 hours away from phone, computer and tv...possibly even books if they are especially trashy. I cook or clean or beauty treatments/personal grooming or face-to-face conversation so that I can look back on the day and say that I achieved something directly related to my space or myself. (what I'm still trying to do is expand that to crafting or working out but I find I have little motivation in those areas right now)

When housebound finding a online community you really click with is really a lifesaver, big bonus if they make you engage your brain in thinking about issues or concepts and they have respectful debates and discussions going on.

[petra]

It sucks that grocery shopping is a catch-22 where you can't do it when it's cleanest because you're not obviously sick enough, but you're too sick to do it the rest of the time. Invisible disabilities suck rocks.

[petra]

Regular sleep is one of those difficult things that people persist in recommending for very good reasons.

I admire your ability to detach from screens for 4 hours a day! I've definitely been having problems with that lately, since almost all my socializing is digital and so are the work-adjacent things that I can get done.

I agree that having a good community is absolutely key. It sounds like you have very solid standards for what you want out of your online interactions; I hope the people in your life can live up to them consistently.

[mesotablar]

my internet is fairly bad, anything beyond text based internet usage gets tricky. Youtube isn't really reliable any more let alone videochats. My big vice was computer games and I didn't like the idea of playing all day just because I was stuck indoors.

My real life friends get phone calls and recently I've been writing them letters and sending care packages which all takes me away from screens.

I've been in online communities where it got toxic, and in this anxious COVID isolation time that is something I really don't want to invite back into my life because my personal support networks are not really there as they used to be*. So I've cut back my active online communities to Dreamwidth and Arocalypse because I believe in their community standards. Plus I am finding out so much about gender which is interesting and informative even though I feel completely Cisfemale.

*this was one of the main points of ContraPoints youtube video about Canceling and it really got to me.

[mesotablar]

I almost wish there was a chronic illness card that I could flash in those situations..and also so it would be easier to claim my free flu shot

[fred_mouse]

Interestingly, I took yesterday off (for pain reasons), and today the mood is mostly fine - but probably because the weather was dreadful both days, but yesterday it was a welcome excuse, and today it was just another thing to get through. And we managed another decrease in our times -- first time we've managed under 11 minutes for the first km!

[petra]

It's good to have a good exception day after a bad exception day. Nicely done on the timing, too.

[fred_mouse]

Thank you. I'm so pleased about the reduction in time -- it is good evidence that I'm actually getting stronger, even though it hurts just as much as it did the first day.